"TimR" wrote in message
...
It's an old mower that was given to me. The cap says unleaded gas,
the manual says four stroke, so I didn't use premix.

Tank was dry, I put in gas, when I yank the starter cord it's like I'm
pulling against compression and gas squirts out the exhaust. Lots of
it.

Sounds like it's dead and not revivable, but any idea what exactly is
broken?

I admit, I don't know much about the insides of these things.

It's not dead, it just needs a simple carb repair. The float is stuck open
or sunk or otherwise not closing so gas pours into the engine. Remove the
carb, take it apart, clean, replace gaskets and maybe float/needle/seat as
needed, put it back together. If you don't know how to do this, find a
repair shop if the mower is worth the cost of repair. Maybe find a buddy
that can do this? Otherwise, you might want to just get rid of it if it
isn't worth what it would take to fix.

Fixing the carb is no guarantee there is nothing else wrong. You might spend
a lot of money fixing the carb only to find the engine is blown.

Drain the gas tank. crank it a few times so there is no gas in the engine.
Clean the plug, make sure it is clean and dry. Squirt some starter fluid
into the carb and crank the engine a few times to see if it fires. It should
start up and fire a dozen times or so and then die. If it won't fire with a
clean plug and a squirt of starter fluid in the carb, there is something
else wrong with it besides just the carb.